Over half of temporary workers in Netherlands are from abroad

In 2024, the Netherlands counted over 2,300 temporary employment agencies providing 407,000 temporary jobs. Over half of these jobs were filled by temporary workers from outside the Netherlands, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported on Wednesday.

Of all sectors, temporary employment makes the most use of workers from outside the Netherlands. Considering all jobs in the sector, including administrative positions, 44.4 percent of jobs were filled by foreign-born workers in 2024, up from 27.2 percent in 2010. Looking at the temporary workers in the sector alone, 52.4 percent of jobs are filled by workers from abroad.

“That has everything to do with the tight labor market,” Peter Hein van Mulligen, the chief economist at CBS, told NOS. Employers struggle to fill vacancies, often for jobs that Dutch people don’t want to do, he said. “For example, jobs in agriculture, distribution centers, and industry. Dutch employees are often too highly educated for the available jobs, so employers are forced to look abroad.”

Most of the temporary workers in the Netherlands come from Europe. Poland leads with approximately 82,500 people, followed by Romania, Ukraine, and Bulgaria. The latter countries together filled approximately 66,000 temporary jobs in 2024. Temporary workers from outside Europe accounted for over 20,000 jobs.

According to Van Mulligen, people from other European countries, particularly in the east, are more willing to take on the generally unskilled work in the Netherlands. “Wages in Eastern Europe are often lower, making it more attractive for people to come and work here.”